The hall before the ‘ceremony’ room was long and tall. There were doors on the left and right side and in between the doors, there stood floor to ceiling stained glass windows with wolves and humans all over them. The oak floor under your feet seemed to eerily creak with every step you took. It felt like the hall went on forever. The doors had no names or titles, not even numbers.

            And that was when you realized, you couldn’t find the room anywhere.

            “It’s a ceremony room right? Shouldn’t it say ‘ceremony’ or something?! Any indication here would be nice…” you said aloud as you wandered up and down the hall. Finally you decided to go back to where you started. “Why would that woman stay out there and leave me here alone?! This is ridiculous.”

            It had been about 10 minutes since you had left Amber and Yomin. You were thinking about skipping the entire thing and running back out there to them however, you knew that was something you absolutely couldn’t do, as you would never hear the end of it from the gossiping old women in the pack.

            Before you reached the door you had come through, you heard a soft noise. It was the sound of something falling and hitting the floor, but it was muffled. You turned around and decided that you would try and find where the noise had come from. If that person has an office in this hall, you reasoned, they will definitely know where I’m supposed to go.

            You came to a door similar to the others, but somehow it was a little bit different. The door was more worn down. The varnish on the door had dimmed and the color seemed to be a couple of shades darker than the other doors in the hall. You could see the sides where the door had possibly been slammed repeatedly because there was unstained, broken off wood on the side where the doorknob was.

            You were ninety-nine percent sure that the sound had come from this particular door. Of course it has to be the door with someone who’s grumpy, you thought. You assumed it was a grumpy person because, no one who abuses a door like that could be anything but the least bit anger prone.

            You took a deep breath, in order to calm yourself down. After two more deep breaths, just in case, you knocked on the door.

            “WHAT?!” You heard a male’s voice angrily scream from inside the room.

            Why do I always have to be right about this kind of stuff? “Excuse me.” You said in the politest tone you could muster at the moment. “I heard the sound of something falling, are you alright?”

            Suddenly the door opened with such a force that it felt like all the air had been out of the corridor. “There’s no way that you could have possibly heard that. All of these rooms are completely sound proof. Double sound proof even,” the man growled.

            The man that stood before you was taller than you by at least 10 centimeters and he loomed over you a little making you uncomfortable. His hair was black but it had bits of white in it to show his age, which looked to be about 40 or 50 (at least by human standards). You noticed that his arms were muscular, especially because his button up light green shirt looked to be especially tight on him. His eyes were blue but, as you continued to look at them, they became scarier. The look he was giving you was like he could kill you right on the spot or do something absolutely horrible to you and not even blink.

            “I have sensitive ears?” You didn’t know why you formed the statement into a question. Maybe it was because the look he was giving you was so intense or because you didn’t even know if you should explain how you could hear the sound in the first place.     “I’m sorry,” you said very quickly as you looked down to avoid having to look in his direction, “I’m actually looking for the room where status placements are supposed to be held. I can’t seem to find it.”

            You saw a hand quickly grab your chin and force your head upward. The swift and harsh motion caused a sharp ache in your neck and the strong grip on your chin felt like your jaw was going to crush into a million pieces. You grabbed the hand and growled loudly trying to pull it off. You saw a glint in the man’s eyes and the blue color changed to a dark orange. You realized that you had made the man especially angry.

            The man gave a low chuckle and pushed your face backwards as he let go of your chin. The push was so hard and forceful that the door knob on the other side of the hall hit you in the middle of your lower back. “So you’re the one… you’ll be broken,” the man said as he pointed down the hall, “second to last door on the right.”

            You began to walk toward the direction he was pointing to until you stopped and turned to look at him. Your eyes narrowed on the man and in that moment, you wished you had laser eyes like you had seen in the old movies your dad like to watch on his days off. “You would do your best to keep your hands off of me. Or the only thing that will be broken, will be the cause of your occupational change to an opera singer and eunuch.”

            You swiftly walked down the hall and entered the room he had directed you to, and you could faintly hear him say something about ‘tasting her blood’ or something of that nature. Note to self: watch out for creepy, blue eyed, barely packing, door slammer guy.

            As you entered the room, you saw a woman bounding up toward you. “Miyeon dear! How wonderful to see you child,” the woman cooed. She reached her arms around you and pulled you into a hug. “I’m so proud of you! You’re finally getting your status!”

            As the woman let you go, you could finally see her face clearly. “Ms. Gwon?” you were in awe, “Ms. Gwon?! I thought you moved away!”

            “I did for a couple of years sweetie,” she said as she pushed one of your curls behind your right ear, “But, I came back and now I’m on the council. Oh, and it is Mrs. An now.”

            Ms. Gwon was your teacher when you were about 15 years old. At that time, you had been separated from Yomin and Amber when it came to class schedule, and Ms. Gwon was a savior to you that year. She was the teacher where you had to learn about statuses, physical tests, and things of that nature. She was one of the university students your school had employed to teach students about these things a year before the first blood test was to take place.

            However, she was more than a teacher to you. She was like a second mother. She wouldn’t partake in the gossip about your fam